MOTHER NATURE AND BASEBALL

MOTHER NATURE AND BASEBALL

The subtle changing of the seasons usually sneaks up on you slowly and rarely causes any major inconvenience as we go through your every day lives.  

Sometimes it is nice to walk out of the house early one morning and feel the brisk cool air hit you in the face after enduring a rash of miserably hot weather which has had your anxiety level higher than normal, your shirts wet with perspiration and your temper on the verge of getting out of control.

Occasionally, it lightens your mood and opens up channels of creative juices as well as the motivation to get busy with projects that have been resigned to the back burner because it has been too damned hot to get out and work on them.

There are times, however, when weather changes sneak up on you and catch you unaware and not prepared to deal with them.  

This past weekend we were 50 miles across town at a neighboring high school with our son playing in a baseball tournament.  Saturday required us to be at the ballpark for 7 straight hours in 100 degree heat, which we have been accustomed to throughout the entire summer baseball season as well as the first 4 weeks of the fall season.

  As usual, we got to the park early and attempted to find the most shady area with the best access to what little wind that mother nature might possibly offer, set up our fancy chairs with the fold away umbrella type sun visors and withstood the blazing heat as best we could throughout the back to back games which we lost one and won the next.   We left the park sweaty, dusty, tired and ready to make the hour drive home to relax and get ready for the early morning trek back to the park for our 10am Sunday game.  

As we walked out the door at 8am on Sunday we were rudely met with a 50 degree drop in temperature and a stiff, cold wind coming directly out of the north causing us to run back into the house and grab for as much clothing as we could in short order so that we wouldn't fall behind on our schedule.  

We spent the next 8 hours bundled up with jackets and beach towels trying to avoid the cold wind while Matthew and the rest of the team seemed to be oblivious to the offending weather.  

We went on to win the tournament with a dominant championship game which caused the appropriate amount of excitement in the boys along with relief from the parents for being able to get into their warm vehicles and head home.  

My wife and I came away with a valuable lesson learned and have decided to keep an extra bag packed for just such occasions.   No dog is ever too old to learn a new trick.

DISCLAIMER:  The "Old Dog" comment should be associated with me and not my beautiful wife.  (I'm not that dumb)....